Basic e-bike questions

Unless you a have some wiring experience, it's best to start with a kit.
You can't become like Deacon overnight.
You can get budget kits (around $500) with a 500w rear hub motor and SLA batteries from domestic suppliers, like some of our sponsors. Get some installation and troubleshooting experience on a budget kit first.
Make your normal beginner mistakes on the cheaper kit.
By the time your SLA batteries are ready for replacement, you can decide if you still want to spend a couple of thousand bucks for a 1000+ watt motor kit and high tech batteries or just a couple of hundred bucks for a new set of SLAs.
Just my opinion.

This is a good book about electric bikes.

http://www.amazon.com/Electric-Bicycles-Design-Electronics-Technology/dp/0471674192

Here is another one. I don't have this one yet but it looks interesting !

Amazon.com: Build Your Own Electric Bicycle (Tab Green Guru)…

The bike you pictured! in OP, i know whos that is! its Mark_A_W's bike from Endless Sphere forums hes a fellow Aussie! Join the Endless Sphere forums is my best advice, it is exclusively electric bikes you will get more upto date advice regarding current e-bike tech there and possibly come across a cheap kit forsale . There are plethora of stickies to explain the very basics.

KiM

EDIT: if you want to build a serious downhiller don't even contemplate a hub motor you will need a non hub setup for ultimate performance, a Kepler friction dive unit (search on ES for this thread) would suit your needs nicely, it is designed to be fitted with one bolt, you could unbolt it for downhill runs, bolt it back on in 1 minute to climb back up hill..carry it in backpack down ....

KiM said:

The bike you pictured! in OP, i know whos that is! its Mark_A_W's bike from Endless Sphere forums hes a fellow Aussie! Join the Endless Sphere forums is my best advice, it is exclusively electric bikes you will get more upto date advice regarding current e-bike tech there and possibly come across a cheap kit forsale . There are plethora of stickies to explain the very basics.

KiM

EDIT: if you want to build a serious downhiller don't even contemplate a hub motor you will need a non hub setup for ultimate performance, a Kepler friction dive unit (search on ES for this thread) would suit your needs nicely, it is designed to be fitted with one bolt, you could unbolt it for downhill runs, bolt it back on in 1 minute to climb back up hill..carry it in backpack down ....

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The stuff you fellows have been showing on this forum is blowing me away ! ! !

I study the pictures for hours ! Someday I will ask questions.

Right now I am stunned with the blend of high tech and bicycle art ! ! !

DannyBOY said:

hi,
right, im very intresting r4i sdhc in doing a "do it your self build" ive just got quite a lot of questions to ask all you people who know your stuff lol.


1) how does all the parts fit together and how do they work?
(does anybody have a simply diagram shows how the battery, motor and controller connect)

2) how do you know what motor and battery is for you?

3)how much does it normally cost for a do it your self build?
(im looking to build a bike what is similier to this bike here)

4) is their any instruction's from kits what show a very simply and explanes everything you need to know from the basic (like how electric works) to advanced level(fitting and understanding everything)?

the reason i ask all these questions is becouse im 18 and i do downhill mountian biking and it would be so awesome to build one with an electric motor im very new to all this but im very motivated about building this project and i can't wait for your replys, im so wanting to build this!!!.


Thank's DannyBOY

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So much useful info. thanks

It sounds and looks like you are trying to build an electric bike that can handle some serious off-road mountain biking. I live and ride my electric bike in LA now, but previously lived in Park City, UT and rode all of the ski resorts during the summer months. After doing some research I found that some of the only people out there building high performance electric bikes that could handle my style of riding was Electrified Bikes.

If you check out their website their builds are a lot like the one that you have pictured. While they offer only full bikes on their website I was able to inquire about a conversion kit via email. I would shoot them an email and see if they had any tips for your build as they have experience building electric bikes for down hill riders.

EBikeEnthusiast said:

After doing some research I found that some of the only people out there building high performance electric bikes that could handle my style of riding wa

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This crowd...stealth electric bikes do a pretty decent downhill bike, has a hub motor on the back only thing i dont like about it, me aint a fan of the frock motor... FYI for the price they sell those bikes at Electrified you could buy a kit bolt it on and save yourself well over a 1000 bucks AND have more power and range, store bught bikes are mostly a HUGE rip fellas.

KiM

One thing that will help you a lot is to go to your local community college and take the basic electronics courses. If you take the basic dc and ac courses, you will know more than 90% of the people out there and will have the basic knowledge to at least understand what people are talking about.

Endless Sphere is the place to learn, but many of those guys are into very expensive systems. You might be best off with a simple hub motor, but if you want to DIY, then look at radio control electric motors called outrunners. You might get yourself a small electric powered rc model to play with and learn with. In my opinion, most advancements in electric vehicle technology (outrunner motors, lipo batteries) seem to be starting out at the rc hobbyist level.

As far as your basic question on how to connect things together, you will have a controller box and a throttle, which are connected by wires. Then you plug in a battery pack to the controller box. The battery pack will have a number of batteries connected to each other, making up a total voltage of say 48V or more. The motor would connect to the controller box as well, all current goes through the controller box, and the throttle determines how much current goes through to the motor. That is a pretty simple overview, I hope that it helps.